


cool change

by akumatised (emeraldine)



Series: seasons [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, uploading this on my phone at 1:30am yeet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 06:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18338480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldine/pseuds/akumatised
Summary: In the winter of 2019, Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng's worlds are flipped upside down. After a 3-year-long friendship that's seen its ups and downs, they're faced with a new challenge. But how will becoming superheroes change their partnership? Are they ready for everything being a hero entails?





	cool change

**Author's Note:**

> soooo..... this series was, as you know, a no miraculous au. I wrote it that way in order to explore what things would have been like if their initial first meeting had happened, but everything after that was different. they were normal kids with normal lives, and their journey from strangers to friends to something more happened gradually, with neither falling head over heels immediately, and more importantly, no love square.
> 
> then I decided in the middle of the series that I wanted to throw a new curve ball at them. I don't know about you, but I don't think I've read any fics where they get their miraculouses AFTER meeting and becoming friends. so I wanted to tackle that, and introduce this challenge and see what it could mean for them as people who already know and care about each other so much.
> 
> so, with that said, I hope you enjoy!

Winter brings with it a whole lot of change.

Not just from mild breezes to biting winds, or from clear(ish) skies to constant rain, or from vibrant falling leaves to threadbare trees and a gloomy sheet of grey covering the city.

No, something else happens this winter. Something no one is expecting.

An evil arises from the woodwork that surpasses the average robber or drug dealer. The villain who calls himself Hawkmoth doesn't deal in typical crime, but he's dangerous nonetheless. He makes himself known one day via a giant stone man who turns out to be Adrien's classmate Ivan. His M.O seems to be preying on the negative emotions of Parisians, and turning them into villains that can do his dirty work- which, other than generally raining danger on the city of Paris, consists of trying to steal Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses.

Now, naturally, this part begs the question: who are Ladybug and Chat Noir? And what are miraculouses?

Well, Ladybug and Chat Noir are two teenage heroes working to stop Hawkmoth.

And Adrien… happens to be one of them.

The day he goes from being a standard 17 year old to a hero in leather is, understandably, a weird one.

Everyone knows Chloe Bourgeois and Lila Rossi are mortal enemies. They are two mean girls who have never and will never form an alliance. Unfortunately, although they don't work together, sometimes they find their eyes trained on the same targets. And a tandem assault from those two is enough to leave anybody angry. And they bring their A game on the day Ivan's crush on Mylene is exposed to the class.

It's Lila that calls him out first, picking up on the attention and affection Ivan's showing Mylene and broadcasting it to the class when Mylene isn't around. Poor Ivan, having squashed down those feelings for years, is  _ mortified _ , but handles it like a champ, thankful the object of his affections isn't there to hear the truth. Then, later on, Chloe hears about it, and this time Mylene  _ is  _ there to hear Chloe laugh at the thought that Ivan could ever get a girl.

He doesn't stick around long enough to find out whether Mylene agrees.

This all occurs just before lunch, which is a fact that Adrien doesn't know he'll soon be grateful for. He's walking to the bakery with Marinette, pulling at his sleeves to cover his hands in what looks like an attempt to shield them from the cold but is mostly a way to busy himself, so he doesn't spend the entire walk fretting over how closely their hands swing to each other by their sides. She's complaining about the cold (as usual) and he's watching her with fond amusement (as usual), when Giant Rock Dude appears, wreaking havoc and causing the whole city to flee in a loud panic. He pulls her running towards the nearest cafe, and it turns out to be incredibly convenient that they can't hide out in the same bathroom because when he locks himself in a stall and opens his bag for something, anything that could help in  _ any  _ way, he finds this hexagonal wooden box, and out of it flies a talking cat and the chance to save his city and change his life.

He doesn't think twice before accepting, nodding along to all the rules thrown at him about secret identities and such (he's seen enough Marvel and DC to know that you  _ just don't share your secret with people, it just doesn't go well _ but at the same time it's a little annoying, because how the heck is going to be able to keep this from Marinette? she reads him like an open book for goodness’ sake), before transforming, shimmying his way out the bathroom window and running headlong into a new life.

He handles himself against Stoneheart pretty well, if he may say so himself. He's definitely getting used to his new abilities, and when he figures out that Giant Rock Dude is his friend, fighting him  _ really  _ sucks, but he feels like he's kinda in control of things.

Ish.

Then someone new flies into his world and knocks him off the lamppost where he's taunting Ivan, in the process stringing the two of them upside down and tangled up together in her- is that a  _ yoyo _ ?

And then she says “Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!” and  _ he knows that voice. _

His eyes fly open just as hers do, and even upside down, swinging slowly side to side with all the blood rushing to his head, there's no doubt in his mind.

“Marinette?”

“Adrien?”

And then they laugh. Of course. Of  _ course  _ they would both be picked to fight evil side by side, and of  _ course  _ they would know each other the second they saw each other.

“Well I, for one, am relieved”, he says, grinning like an idiot as she watches her upside down pigtails swing softly. “I just knew trying to keep this from you would be  _ torture _ . Now, I don't have to!”

She laughs and agrees, but it soon becomes clear that this is going to be tough regardless, because although they know each other's identities, she is determined to make absolutely sure that no one else ever does.

And that changes things.

He's not surprised at all by her approach to superheroing. He wouldn't be her best friend if he didn't expect her to become so driven and focused and faithful to the goal; it's just who she is. But it comes at a price, because God forbid one of them gets hurt and the other shouts their name in a moment of hysterics, or their familiarities are noticed by civilians?

So things have to change.

Sometimes Adrien finds himself thinking it'd be easier if he  _ didn't  _ actually know.

Because it  _ hurts _ , if he's being honest. They'd been working up to something great, and there were times when he thought she might return his feelings. But now that they're… coworkers, for lack of a better word, the distanced civility that has become their new normal has begun to bleed into their lives as Marinette and Adrien. Ladybug and Chat Noir treating each other like colleagues, he can handle, but Marinette and Adrien?

That sucks.

Still, through it all, he can admire her commitment to the cause. Even when it means holding back a scream when she gets hurt, or worse, being the one hurt and watching her soldier on as though it doesn't affect her at all.

He knows they're still best friends, and he knows she cares about him. Really, he does. But it's hard to interrupt insecurity with the truth when all she does is grit her teeth and move forward at the sight of him broken and bruised.

 

Eventually it all becomes too hard. After a particularly scary akuma attack, in which he pushes her out of the line of fire and sees the flash of anguish in her eyes as he crumples to the ground, clutching his stomach and trying not to look at the blood trickling out from behind his hand where a  _ literal bullet _ resides in his abdomen, he can't take it anymore. The minute Ladybug's magic pieces him back together again, he runs. He doesn't even glance at her or stay for the obligatory fist bump. He just books it. He has no clue  _ where  _ he's going, or why he's running from the person he loves most instead of seeking the comfort he so desperately needs but it all just hurts too much and in his pain and panic all he can do is run, and keep running until the pain in his chest feels a little too much like the pain he'd felt in his stomach not long before. He stops as suddenly as he started, chest heaving and tears falling as he collapses onto his knees on a rooftop he doesn't recognise.

And then she's there.

She whispers his name so quietly he almost doesn't register it, but his heart is quicker than his head and it stutters at the recognition of her voice the way it does every time she speaks. He turns his head slowly and there she is, framed by a glorious sunset, standing timidly a few feet away and looking utterly ruined.

He'd known, of course, that when this moment came he'd feel no resentment towards her for the way things have been the past few weeks. Sure, it's hurt, a ton, but knowing her reasons and knowing it's been as hard for her as it has for him.. There's no way he's going to be holding grudges. And sure enough, when he sees the tear tracks on her cheeks and the grief in her eyes, any feelings of hurt or anger are gone. He just wants them to be okay again.

“I'm so sorry”, she whispers.

The way they come together is instantaneous; before he even realises he's gotten up and she's run over they're in each other's arms and she's sobbing into his shoulder and he's weeping into her hair and she keeps apologising, over and over and over, “sorry”s coming out in heaving gasps.

“It kills me”, she says, pulling away from him and holding his shoulders to maintain eye contact. “You know that, right? Every time you get hurt, I go home and I cry. It doesn't matter if it's just a scratch. It  _ kills  _ me. Don't ever forget that. I'm so sorry I never told you–”

“Hey, LB, it's okay”, he says. “I know.”

“But it's  _ not  _ okay!” she shouts. “I watch you get hurt time and time again and it  _ rips  _ me apart every time and I have to just keep doing my job as if a part of me isn't  _ dying  _ every time you fall to the ground! I can't do it anymore!”

He doesn't want to make her feel worse. Truly, he doesn't. He holds no offense towards her. But he needs to hear it from her. He needs to know.

“I’m not mad or holding a grudge, truly, but I just have to know.. why, Marinette?”

He  _ hates  _ the way his voice breaks when he whispers the question, but he hates the way her face scrunches up in pain even more.

“I'm so scared, Adrien”, she admits, so quietly he can barely hear her. “We're just kids.. and I love that we get to save our city but the price we pay for it is way too high for a couple of seventeen year olds! We should be thinking about our grades and our jobs and our.. crushes- you know, things normal teenagers think about! We shouldn't be carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders and then having to hide it from everyone that we're terrified, all the time. I'm so scared! I put on this mask and try to be this larger-than-life hero, who saves the day no matter what, but I'm just a kid. A kid who can't handle watching her best friend being broken apart for her sake, no matter how good she is at pretending.”

She hangs her head, sighing deeply. “I don't want to pretend anymore.”

His heart breaks for her. For both of them.

“Marinette”, he whispers softly, covering her hand with his. “You were never meant to do this alone.  _ We  _ were never meant to do this alone. I know this will hurt to hear and it'll hurt me to say, but, we could've done this together, only, you wouldn't let me in. You wouldn't let me be your partner. I told you that first day that I was so glad to be doing this with you, but that wasn't purely because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep this secret from you.

We've always been partners. We've always shouldered things together. When one of us is hurt, we've always had each other to turn to. That's  _ why  _ we're in this together, that's why our miraculouses are yin and yang and that's why you weren't given this job to do alone. And yet you've put the whole burden on your shoulders and refused to share it. I know you're scared to mess things up, and soldiering on feels like the only way to defeat the bad guy, but this isn't  _ your  _ fight. It's  _ ours _ . You need to give me the option. You need to let me help you. And you need to be okay with not being okay sometimes. That's the whole reason you have a best friend and partner in one.”

He moves his hands to rest on her cheeks and brings his face closer to her, holding her gaze unwaveringly. “I'm not saying any of this to make you feel bad. But I need you to promise me. Promise me that we're gonna be a team from now on. Both on the battlefield and at school. You can be as professional and as focused as you want when we're taking on akumas, but you were never meant to shield all the rest of it from me. Besides, it helps my fragile self esteem a little to know you care when this old cat gets scratched up.”

She laughs for the first time all day, wiping stray tears from her eyes. “Oh, Kitty”, she says, “you know you mean the world to me.”

And he does, but hearing her say so makes his stomach do backflips.  _ Oh yeah,  _ he thinks.  _ This is the girl you love _ .

“So do you promise you're gonna share with me?” he asks, tone playful but expression completely serious.

“I promise”, she says, nodding and raising her right hand. “Bug’s honour.”

He laughs, standing and holding out a hand to her. “Come on, let's get you home.”

She looks up at the sky, surprised. “Oh man, when did it get so dark? And so cold?”

“I don't know”, he says, grinning at her with what he knows is the most adoring expression ever, “but I hear cats are pretty warm if ya need a cuddle buddy.”

She rolls her eyes, but throws an arm around him nonetheless.

By the time they reach the alley across from her house, she's exhausted. “Is it bedtime yet?” she asks drowsily.

“It's only 7, Bugaboo”, he laughs. “You've still gotta have dinner and tell your parents where the heck you've been for the past 3 hours.”

Her eyes fly open. “Oh my gosh! My parents! They'll be so worried! I should-”

“-Tell them you were having a study session with Adrien after and the cafe you were in was locked down because of the akuma attack, so when it was all over, he called his driver and gave you a lift home.” He grins. “That should work, no?”

“Ah, I love you! You're the best!”

He laughs it off, but he's beginning to wonder if there's a cheerleader in his insides, going crazy for him every time Marinette says something like that.

Although she's never said  _ that  _ before. So maybe that's why he feels so upside down.

“It's nothing, Bugaboo. But hey, this is what we can do for each other, remember? The power of partnership.”

“You're a dork”, she says affectionately. “But seriously. You know you're the best, right? I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.”

“Of course you wouldn't! Besides, I can't think of anyone else who could pull off the leather quite like Adrien Agreste”, he smirks.

“Oh, but what would Gabriel say if he knew? Such a scandalous trend, black leather”, she laughs.

“He'd probably say it was disgraceful. ‘Utterly disgraceful. Adrien, get that ridiculous costume off immediately!’”

“Better not tell him, then”, she says with a glint in her eye, flicking the bell at his collar, “I kinda like the look.”

“Okay, time for you to go”, he deflects with a smile, hoping the raging blush in his cheeks isn't so obvious in the low light of the streetlamps nearby.

“Oh, alright.” She steps back further into the alley so she's shrouded in darkness as she detransforms, then walks back over to him. “Sorry again”, she says softly. “And thank you, again.”

“What are partners for?” he replies with a smile. Her soft smile in response mirrors his, and before she slips away she stands on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Best partner in the world”, she whispers as she walks away.

He stares after her, stunned, heart beating out of his chest. He wants to call out to her; ask her what she meant when she said she loved him; tell her he loved her too; maybe even return her kiss with one of his own. But now is not the time. Now is for rebuilding. Now is for partnership. Now is for friendship.

But maybe their season for something more will come. And maybe, just maybe, winter won't be so cold after all.

**Author's Note:**

> excuse me waiter there's some angst in my aesthetic fic
> 
> nah but for real, I'm sorry if this feels incongruous with the other two stories in my seasons series, but I did kind of want things to shift partway through. and I love my seasonal pretty fluffy stories, but I love the depth this one has and I think it explores what different seasons of a relationship can look like in a more realistic way than if I'd kept up this slow burn with no real complications for the span of four seasons. and don't worry, spring will bring some levity and lightness back, and our two faves will finally, finally, be honest with each other and get their feels out in the open.
> 
> until next time,  
> bee 🐝


End file.
